Bills’ Sean McDermott Apologized for Making Insensitive Comparisons in Team Meetings
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Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott apologized to his team for referencing the 9/11 hijackers as an example of effective teamwork.
He told reporters he “immediately apologized” to his team and made a mistake during the meeting when attempting to describe the importance of communication:
Alaina Getzenberg @agetzenberg
(2/2) “… Not only was 9/11 a horrific event in our country’s history, but a day that I lost a good family friend.”
His comments come after NFL insider Tyler Dunne (h/t Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk) wrote a series detailing McDermott’s tenure as Buffalo’s head coach and some of the issues that have arisen.
Included was this anecdote:
“At St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, N.Y., McDermott’s morning address began innocently enough. He told the entire team they needed to come together. But then, sources on-hand say, he used a strange model: the terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. He cited the hijackers as a group of people who were all able to get on the same page to orchestrate attacks to perfection. One by one, McDermott started asking specific players in the room questions. ‘What tactics do you think they used to come together?’ A young player tried to methodically answer. ‘What do you think their biggest obstacle was?’ A veteran answered, ‘TSA,’ which mercifully lightened the mood.”
One player told Dunne it was “a horrible, horrible reference” that “missed the mark” from someone who has “lacking” social skills.
Florio suggested McDermott could be coaching for his job down the stretch of the 2023 season, especially after offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey was fired this year and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier left following the 2022 campaign.
This is his seventh season as Buffalo’s head coach, and the team has made the playoffs in five of his first six years. However, it has fallen short of the Super Bowl each time and is on the outside of the postseason picture looking in at 6-6.
While that is good enough for 11th place in the AFC standings, it is still just one game behind the final AFC wild-card spot with five games remaining.
If there is not a late-season push, though, the Bills could be looking for a new head coach for 2024.
